Ok now that Ive recovered and all those nasty wtb thoughts have waned, Ill post a glimpse of what is going on in my mind. blehh... ~_~
Thanks all for making the meet so fun! Oh man I should have grabbed a slice of that pizza even though I had stuffed myself before coming... Jahn, nice apartment you got there! Very neat and great use of space. Pumpkin is the most agreeable dog Ive been with to date! It wasnt drooling and/or overly enthusiastic, but just enough to be lovable haha. I guess good personality rubs off! On your son too! His lilo hands turning teh knobs was the sight of the day!(ok I missed that exotic car motorcade). Thanks for the hospitality!
Ok I guess I'm awake enough to spit out a few "audiophile"- related adjectives[size=xx-small]
(bs)[/size]
For one who would eschew a high end transportable system to any mediocre desktop rig anyday, Im glad to be labled hypocrite now that I absolutely will be sticking with my on the go stuff and put off doing any kind of home based listening system till I move out
.
First off, I'm very suprised at how resolving the craptastic little ipod can be!
When driven by the portaphile, the 580s sure picked up the oh so not very subtle colorations of each cable I tried, first the senn cable Nankai brought over, then the blue dragon and finally the revered equinox. Last time I heard senn cables was with the cardas and mobius- the benefits of the aftermarketers sure poked its head out saturday more than before. If I remember, it was the mobius that really caught my ear. This time, I really could identify with the blue dragon. I like the subtle detail it revealed, yet managing not to seem overtly bright. I sensed more ease with the more balanced sound the equinox brought to the senns, especially the 600's. The cable Nankai brought over was reminiscent of the blue dragon, but more peaky and not as robust overall- I believe it was a good cable for the 580/650 but I didnt particularly like it with the 600. For the 600 I could do with the equinox's more lush sound that compensates for in my opinion the ever so slightly brighter 600 high-mids. The blue dragon could do well with the 580/650 too, but I prefered it for the 580 more
. For the value though, I would say the unidentified cable of Nankai's will be the one for me. Oh yea all of these cables passed though the (very cute) zu 1/4 to mini adapter Romanee had. Me wants one tooz
Could my ears have matured? I picked up the (albeit much more subtle compared with the headphone cables) improvement the jumbo silk had over the regular cryo dock/silver six. I guess there was a limit to my abilities as I could definately not have differentiated my silver six shooter from the regular cryo dock.
The amps! Oh boy the amps
. That mini-d box sure was something
different. It looked like a metal business card holder, with jacks and a wheel pot. I havent spent proper time with the senns, since mine became an unfortunate casualty of a catastrophic edamame reactor leak- which also spilled its green salty protien filled waste liquid onto my equally beloved 501s.. ARRG why oh why did it have to target the discontinued gems!!
Back to the amp
The minibox sure had big sound, bigger and more involving than most amps in the pricerange. There was a low end energy that comes with most entry level amps, but what they lack for (and this particular unit stocks) is clarity. To an extent, the low end felt like a nice home componet should. It wasn't as defined and layered as my portaphile, nor as three dimensional, but compared to my LDM+, it was the clear winner in terms of bass and mids. The highs did not sound as sterile as the LDM+(which to an extent feels very non musical), but rather a bit rounded. The soundstage was much harder to judge because of the immense rustle, no rumble, of Jahn's little speakers(warfs?) blasting off to GHII, with Lan's seemingly obscene composure vs Jahn's pathetic moans of pain
Maybe Romanee, who I think has the little business card amp may chime in with less confusing/ BS-y impressions courtesy of those golden ears of his.
The hornet. Oh teh hornet
. I had such high expectations for it, and it let me down(hint
me not everyone else). Maybe it was coming from my recent flirtations with the SR71 (to the chagrin of teh portaphile
), or maybe the big fat yet textured flavor of the microamp/dm, but the little hornet seemed very uhh... dry? I'm pretty damn sure it's not dry at all but when I was listening to it, I kind of just felt like turning it off, much like I did with my sr225's(well at least after the initial post purchase honeymoon
). All I could think of was the contrast, it was just too black and white for me. Maybe it was just the expectations, but it could more likely be that the hornet reveals the skeletons in the ipods closet. Ill have to give this little kid a better audition another time.
The tomahawk
It is good for iems. Sounds better to me than the hornet, and more relaxed overall. The detail mining is almost on par...maybe not.. but close, with my SR71(which remains my IEM's lifeline). Still very black like the hornet, but it is both less bright on top, and the low ends had some depth to it, which I prefer for iems. The price is alright but not exciting at 300, but I would probably spring for it only if I decide to get es3 or ue10 or the like(not anytime soon)
.
The two minutes I spent with the XM3 before it vanished means I don't have enough clout to pour bs from my mouth about it.
Did I leave anything out? Oh yea the SR71 vs Microamp/DM vs portaphile.. Damn Ill leave that love triangle out of this @_@
If there is one thing learned, it is that yes a portable/xportable rig
can have the resolution required for cable rolling, and the only plecebo I've been experiencing was actually a belief(and refusal to 'hear otherwise') that a portable rig really cannot be worth the accessories people lavishly add to it. Either that was the case and the 'portable veil was lifted', or this is
the best upgrade period.
